Back in the pre-Google® age, a bookmark indicated the page where you’d left off reading. And there were various ways to do this.
I often use a photo, and the one I use most is of my son Keith and me standing in front of the gates to Elvis Presley’s Graceland. Every time I see it, I think of that trip we took years ago. It adds extra enjoyment to my reading.
There are readers who purchase bookmarks. I belong to this category too, as I often use the leather one I bought in London’s Westminster Abbey. It too reminds me of a trip Earl and I took, the one where we encountered the one-hundred year hurricane.
Some people fold the corner of the page into a little triangle, although others find this offensive. Perhaps the first group also makes notes in the margins, while the second wouldn’t dream of defacing a book in any way. I belong to the former group. And if the book has a dust jacket, I admit to using the inside flap as a built-in bookmark.
Our local independent bookstore also has a variety of bookmarks; there is a myriad of videos on YouTube® showing how to make your own; and teachers help their students turn them into Christmas gifts for Mom and Dad. Occasionally, one hears of a lost lottery ticket, a maple leaf, or a business card being pressed into service.
And now we have the Internet, which has modified the use of the bookmark. It still serves the same purpose – to help return to a certain place – but it isn’t half as entertaining.
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